DESPITE a commitment by its Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gregory Dean, that the country’s most prestigious schools football tournament will remain, Digicel (Guyana) remains tight-lipped on whether or not, we will see an eighth edition.

On February 22, 2017, Digicel announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 25 per cent over the next 18 months, as part of its 2030 global transformation programme.

Digicel said it is designing and integrating its organisation to be fit for purpose for 2030 and beyond, stating the future organisational structure will comprise a small number of regional hubs (two for the Caribbean and Central America regions and two for the Pacific region), housing back office centralised functions and delivering shared services, allowing staff in Digicel’s 31 markets to focus on sales and enhanced service delivery – and ensuring that resources and investments are prioritised to drive competition and innovation.

However, in Guyana, persons were of the opinion that because of the predicted changes, it could be an end to what is now seen as the ‘Holy Grail’ of schools football locally.

“There’s no issue with us continuing the tournament,” Dean had told reporters after the completion of the seventh edition of the championship, which saw Chase Academy win their second successive title with a 6-2 win over Annai Secondary last year.

July 30 will mark one year since the last tournament was held, and local authorities are reluctant to speak on-record on if schools should start putting systems in place to build a winning roster.

Meanwhile, Dean was adamant, that for the tournament to continue, some fundamental changes will have to be made, especially with the company scaling down in operation, adding, “The staff doesn’t have the time to run the tournament the way it’s been running for the past seven years, but, I think we just need to change the way we’ve been doing it.”

Asked if special management committee will be put in place, Dean stated, “If you look at the way we’ve been executing the tournament over the years, the staffs are the ones doing everything, going to all the regions; we just don’t have the resources in terms of staff to execute at that level.”

“There’s also a little conflict in terms of maintaining our business and also doing the tournament, so I think regardless of what it is, we want to keep doing the tournament, but we have to change the way it’s being done,” said Dean, who is responsible for the Guyana, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao markets.

One hundred and fifty schools, drawn from the ten administrative regions of Guyana, participated in the last Digicel Schools Championship, which was won by Chase Academy.

However, the Christianburg Wismar Secondary School (Multi), remain the most decorated team in the tournament, winning four titles and playing in the final of every tournament, with the exception of the 2017 edition when they finished fourth.